Home to one of the world’s most popular shopping and tourist destinations and also one of the world’s largest and technologically advanced construction industries, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also witnessed one of the steepest slowdowns owing to the global economic crisis.

While the building construction industry was the worst hit on account of its multiple exposure from all segments such as commercial, residential, tourism and leisure and retail and others such as airports and social infrastructure, all of which were equally hit by the impact of the global economic slowdown. While the UAE economy is similar to its counterparts of the GCC in terms of its oil reserves, since the discovery of oil 30 years ago, it has also been one of the most open among them in terms of property ownership and lack of taxes and duties. However, its openness has also made it the most vulnerable among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to the global economic slowdown and external fluctuation. Nevertheless, the economy has made a strong effort to recover from the aftermath of the crisis and these efforts are likely to reap rich dividends with analysts estimating the economy to grow at a stronger rate than the IMF forecast 1.3 percent in 2010.

Ventures Middle East with its vast experience on up to date tracking of projects across industries and countries in the Middle East has aimed to explore the main areas of growth in the UAE building construction market and the prime forces driving the growth of this market while trying to enumerate and outline the main restraints to the growth of the market over the coming years.

The UAE Building Construction Industry is expected to witness contract awards worth an estimated US$ 27,216 million in 2010 and US$ 25,127 million in actual building construction spending in the corresponding period. The Ventures UAE Building Construction Industry- Rising to Meet New Challenges (November 2010) report analyzes all the subsectors within the building construction sector such as retail, commercial, residential, tourism and leisure and others (includes educational institutions, hospitals, airports and other miscellaneous projects) in detail as to their growth and prospects in the current economic scenario and their future up to 2012.

Key Highlights of the study includes a probability impact matrix of the drivers and restraints to the growth of the building construction industry, besides providing detailed and vital statistics on the contracts awarded and the construction spend across all the segments of the building construction market that comprise the largest areas of activity in the industry, namely, residential, commercial, mixed use, retail, tourism and leisure and others and the top projects in the country in these major sectors and an overview of the main political, social, economic, technological, legal and environmental factors shaping the growth of the industry in the UAE.

This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the complete market dynamics of the UAE Building Construction Industry to assist players interested in assessing the market opportunities in this dynamic market.

Table 1: Top Ongoing Projects in the Retail Segment (US$ Million), October 2010Table 2: Top 5 Ongoing Residential Projects in the Residential Segment, October 2010Table 3: Top Ongoing Projects in the Commercial Segment by Project Value, October 2010Table 4: UAE Top Ongoing Projects in Mixed Use Segment by Value, October 2010Table 5: UAE Top Ongoing Projects by Value in the Tourism Segment, October 2010Table 6: Top Ongoing Projects by Value in the "Others" Segment, October 2010